Alright, I'm back! Looks like at the current rate, this fic will end up being just a few chapters longer than its prequel… so probably around 46 or 47 chapters in total, depending on how long and how much I break up each battle. Though there is still a possibility that by the time the epilogue comes, it'll be even longer than that, though not by too much.

Still internally debating on what my next fanfic will be about once I've gotten started and made some progress on my new novel. If any of you recall the ideas I've already mentioned in my previous ANs and was particularly interested by one of them, please let me know!

Chapter 38

From the news station, Mercury peered out of a window slightly to see what was going on. He wasn't disappointed. On the ground below, he could see the police forces already assembled looking particularly haggard, trying to decide on what to do next at the sounds of fighting clearly taking place not all too far away.

Said sounds of fighting could only mean one thing: Roman, Neo, and Adam had finally started clashing with those two student teams. Which in turn meant that right about now, the Holy Knights should be squaring off with the ancient magi within those artificial spaces of theirs.

Such a thought was enough to almost completely alleviate the grey haired man's worry. For it was mainly the ancient magi approaching here that had had him so utterly nervous about this whole plan. But now as long as the magi stay within Robotics Space, he shouldn't have too much to worry about.

Especially since, as per Vidar's plan, he was now required to help Roman and the others take care of the ancient magi's little teenaged allies.

Heading back to the news room to see the hostages still rounded up and now bound and gagged, Mercury looked amongst the crowd of the White Fang until he found who he was looking for.

"Hey, Lieutenant?" He spoke, a small smile on his face. "Want to put that chainsaw of yours to some good use?"

Although the man's face was hidden behind the mask he wore, the slight revving of his weapon was all the answer Mercury needed.

With teams RWBY and JNPR, the eight Beacon students found themselves fighting hard to keep the three criminals at bay. What should've been a relatively easy fight given their numbers and semblances was turning out to be much harder than they'd originally been expecting.

"Come on, red! Try harder than that!" Roman mocked as he deftly blocked a strike from Crescent Rose, right before kicking Ruby back.

The young team leader grimaced, partially from the strength of Roman's kick and partially out of frustration. Her semblance, which slowed those within her immediate vicinity as at the same rate she accelerated wasn't doing her much good. At first, when she'd actively used it, it had taken the criminal before her off guard enough for her and Weiss to land a good blow on him, but after that, Roman had seemed to catch on quickly enough was and was now able to adjust his timing to block her attacks. It also didn't help that most of the time he was keeping her at bay with energy blasts from his cane, thereby keeping her far away enough for her semblance to not affect him.

"You talk too much!" Weiss actually growled as she stabbed Myrtenaster into the rooftop. Ice Dust equipped and fueled by the heiress' mana, a miniature blizzard was generated from the move and was sent Roman's way.

The criminal grimaced as said blizzard approached him at incredible speed, but he still managed to jump away and onto a different rooftop close by.

Only for Nora to join in and fire off a round at him just as he'd landed. It was only thanks to his quick reflexes and the durability of his improved Melodic Cudgel that Roman didn't take much damage.

That was when Ren made his appearance, silently landing during the explosion of Nora's round next to Roman and lashing out with Stormflower, trying to cut Roman's side. But the criminal, while having never been a hunter, was still a skilled and experienced fighter and was therefore able to detect the raven haired teen at the last instant, pivoting to barely avoid the blade on Ren's gun.

From there on, Ren unleashed an complete flurry of attacks, combining his excellent hand to hand combat skills with his own weapons. The gravity of the situation bearing down on him, Ren saw no need to play nice and so aimed for Roman's more vital areas such as the stomach and solar plexus. Some of his attacks were even aimed for the back of Roman's knees, his underarms, crotch, and even the neck. But displaying a deftness that only a dancer would really possess, Roman was able to dodge and parry every blow before taking advantage of an opening to deliver a strong elbow blow to Ren's face.

"Guh!" Ren hardly saw it coming and went staggering back, giving his foe enough time to twirl Melodic Cudgel before smacking Ren hard in the gut with the back of it.

"Leave him alone!" Nora yelled as she now leapt from the previous building and above Roman, Magnhild in its hammer form. Swinging with great strength, Nora attempted to smash the criminal not unlike a bug. Unfortunately for her, Roman was quick on his feet and he was able to take a few steps back to avoid the blow.

However, he didn't account for Nora's strength, so when Magnhild struck the rooftop, it all but blew it apart and knocked Roman back several yards and through the air…

…Into an combined attack from Ruby and Weiss. Said attack came in the form of Weiss creating an acceleration glyph that both of them jumped through, weapons first, towards the airborne Roman. They traveled at three times their normal speed towards the criminal and smashed into him hard enough to crash through the roof and through ten floors of the thankfully abandoned building they'd been on.

"Argh…" Roman could only groan. That had really hurt. Not to mention, it messed up his suit a bit.

But whatever pain he'd felt vanished and was replaced by the familiar feeling of worry as he, in the middle of a crater, suddenly found himself surrounded by Ren, Nora, Ruby, and Weiss.

He groaned. This was turning out to be not quite what he'd imagined.

On the building where the fight first started, Blake and Pyrrha were clashing fiercely with Adam. Both young huntresses-in-training were on the losing end of said clash, a testament to Adam's own combat prowess.

Swinging Gambol Shroud, Blake used her ribbons to maneuver said weapon behind him before opening fire, hoping to take him from behind while he clashed with Pyrrha. But to her annoyance, Adam quickly broke off and swung his blade behind him, slicing the bullets in half with all the effort it takes to breath. That was also when he raised his sword's sheathe, which was a gun in and of itself, and returned fire on Blake and Pyrrha, forcing the former to back off and the latter to defend herself with her shield.

But Pyrrha didn't get to do anything more after the hail of bullets stopped for Adam had moved forward while shooting and proceeded to kick Milo dead center, the force of his attack sending Pyrrha skidding back to where Blake was.

"Have you tried your semblance yet?" Blake asked Pyrrha in a low voice.

"I have been… but whatever his weapon is made of, it's not metal," Pyrrha replied, her green eyes showing frustration.

She was right. While Vidar didn't think them to be much of a threat, he'd decided to err on the side of caution during the construction of the criminals' weapons, designing them in such a way that they'd be able to easily deal with the teens. This included semblances that could potentially affect them such as Pyrrha's polarity.

"Anything that is made of metal in the area then?" Blake asked, hoping that maybe Pyrrha could draw on other objects to use as extra ammunition.

"I could try," Pyrrha replied.

"Then try. I'll get his attention," Blake said before rushing forward at the casually walking Adam. Evidently, he'd thought himself too strong for them to deal with, too strong to even worry about them possibly planning anything. It was the only reason why he'd be so leisurely walking towards them right now.

Blake intended to prove him wrong.

Activating her own semblance as she got within seven feet of her former comrade, she leapt over him just as he swung his sword, watching with a slight sense of satisfaction at the look of shock on his face when the clone he'd ended up striking didn't disappear and instead tried to counter him.

The clones the cat Faunus was able to make now may be able to only take a hit or two before dispersing, but they were capable of at least some movements of their own, such as now when the clone ducked and tried to take Adam's feet out from under him, forcing him to jump back only for the real Blake to create two more clones to cut his back with Gambol Shroud.

Then she, the real one, kicked him in the side, but by then Adam had managed to recover and was able to partially block the hit before shooting the clones a few times until they all disappeared.

"You've improved, Blake…" Adam admitted as he quickly checked his back. He frowned slightly in distaste; the clones had drawn blood. By no means was the wound a serious one, but until his enhanced healing as a pseudo-magi kicked in, he'd have to be careful. "But it still won't be enough, you know."

Focusing his mana, the red parts of his clothes and hair lit up slightly as his physical abilities were boost a bit. It was a little trick he'd discovered during his brief time of training and preparation prior to tonight. While his semblance only worked when he was prepared to absorb an energy attack, he could forcibly activate it and obtain a slight boost by using up some of his mana as a sort of sacrifice. It was nowhere near the boost he'd normally get from absorbing an actual enemy attack, but it was enough for him to now suddenly overwhelm Blake.

Blake barely knew what'd happened. She'd just been about to continue her offensive, but then Adam had suddenly begun to demonstrate greater speed and strength than before as he suddenly forced himself upon her, dolling out one vicious swing of his blade after another, sheathing and unsheathing his blade so fast that her eyes couldn't track the movement. Forced to block the sudden onslaught, the cat Faunus was unable to find the time or opening needed to make a clone at all. For that matter, she could hardly find any real time to properly block and that unfortunate fact caught up with her barely a microsecond later when Adam broke through her flimsy guard completely and cut her across her legs before swatting her across the face with his sheathe.

Blake cried out in pain and tumbled back, but was able to focus enough to form a clone in time for it to counter Adam's follow up attack, the clone then retaliating with both of its own blades to make Adam back off while the real Blake turned her tumble into a controlled roll, landing on her feet a split second later.

"It's over, Blake!" Adam said, his usually calm mask shattering a bit to show the anger he'd held underneath. His grip on his blade and sheathe tightened, eyeing his former friend as her clone now dissipated. "You've always been strong and you may have gotten even stronger, but I'm still on a different level than you, so-!"

Whatever else he'd had to say was very much abruptly cut off when three cars suddenly came out of nowhere and smashed right into him.

"Sorry for the wait," Pyrrha said, now stepping alongside Blake. A victorious smile of sorts could be seen upon the redhead's face. "It took a bit of time for me to find anything particularly heavy to use."

"Better late than never," Blake responded, a small smile of her own appearing as she readied Gambol Shroud. "Get ready; once he blows those cars off right now, he's going to be angry."

"Not unless we follow up," Pyrrha suggested.

Then wordlessly, both young women switched their weapons into their gun forms and opened fire on the cars Pyrrha had used her semblance to hit Adam with. Due to the positioning of said cars, the vulnerable underbellies of them were exposed. The bullets struck gold and the cars exploded, making for an almost wondrous sight of destruction to see even from a mile away.

Meanwhile, with the last three combatants, a deadlock was currently underway.

"Eat this!" Yang yelled as she threw a punch at the short woman before her. The blonde brawler grit her teeth as Neo promptly dodged it with minimal effort, just tilting her head to the side before smacking Yang in return with her umbrella.

That was when Jaune stepped in, coming from behind Neo and swinging his blade with immense speed. It was only thanks to years of fighting that Neo was able to immediately sense the incoming attack and respond to it almost instinctively, ducking under Balmung while simultaneously stepping back in order to get closer to Jaune. Then with a great display of agility, Neo leapt straight up and twirled above Jaune, striking him several times with her umbrella before hitting him in the back of his head with a spin kick.

While Neo's physical strength wasn't quite on par with her male companions, she still packed quite a punch thanks to her years of fighting and being a pseudo-magus now. If Jaune hadn't been wearing his Armor of Fafnir, the kick might've actually shattered the very back of his skull, which would've made for an injury that couldn't simply be shrugged off. So thankfully for him, he only ended up stumbling forward instead.

That didn't meant he wasn't frustrated though.

Recovering quickly, Jaune was then joined by Yang in a combined effort to hit Neo, with the female blonde getting in close to fire off shotgun rounds with Ember Celica while Jaune would try to predict where Neo would dodge to in order to cut her down with Balmung.

But their efforts were all for naught; Neo just kept dodging all of their attacks like it was nothing, even if only by a hair's breadth or so.

"Jaune, throw me at her!" Yang commanded as she leapt towards the leader of team JNPR.

Wordlessly, Jaune briefly let go of Balmung in order to grab Yang and promptly spun once before throwing her right at Neo.

Now there was a bit of a reaction there. Neo's usually stern looking face throughout the fight so far now took on an expression of surprise, having not expected such a maneuver nor being quite able to anticipate the speed of the throw.

Unable to dodge, Neo had to instead settle for blocking the blow with her umbrella, opening it and hiding behind it just as Yang struck. Only for the blow to send her flying back at Mach speeds; the few light blows she'd landed on Yang had come back to bit her as Yang's semblance had kicked in to amplify her attack power momentarily, her blonde hair glowing brightly just prior to impact.

Seeing an opportunity, Yang landed right after the blow and started firing yet again after the airborne Neo. And to her elation, the shotguns rounds struck home. But elation turned to outright bewilderment when Neo's body shattered like glass upon being struck.

"What the hell?!" Jaune exclaimed, watching this too. He could only numbly watch as the pieces of Neo's 'body' fell to the street far below, looking far too much like shattered glass to be mistaken for anything else now. "Where did she…?!"

He trailed off as he heard the increasingly loud whipping sound of helicopter blades. Whatever few members of the police force that could be dispatched here were getting closer fast now, even with how much he and the others have moved around during the fighting so far.

"This really isn't how I imagined things going, you know?" Yang remarked, the normally lively blonde looking more than a little grumpy as she took several small leaps back to get back to Jaune's side. She was in an aggressive boxing stance, her eyes sharp and on the lookout for Neo, who'd all but vanished without a trace.

"Yeah… but we can worry about being seen later. We have to stop these guys and the White Fang bef-!" Jaune was cut off as an invisible blow was dealt to his throat. While the blow hurt him little thanks to his armor, it still succeeded in making him stagger and cough, if only from having his windpipe so suddenly hit. This in turn left him completely unable to defend against the immediate follow up, which resulted in him being catapulted down to the street below.

Yang had no time to call out to Jaune nor would she have done so anyways; she knew he'd be fine in spite of her worry for him. As of this instant though, she was much more concerned for herself, sensing danger and reacting appropriately by covering her stomach. She was right to do so as the familiar sensation of an umbrella hitting her came rearing its head again, nearly knocking her off the building.

But Neo, rendered invisible thanks to using her semblance to hide within a partially sealed space, wasn't done just yet. Knowing that the blonde was going to block the initial attack, she launched a second one right after, leg sweeping her before landing an axe-kick that sent Yang spiraling down to the streets along with Jaune.

Yang hardly had the time to even brace for impact before she hit the pavement, nearly being buried beneath a good foot of two of rubble in the process. "Gah!" Her semblance kicked in on its own, her hair and eyes lighting up, though it did little good in lessening the damage she took.

"You alright?!" Jaune asked as he quickly approached, having crashed only a second before her and was therefore already up again.

"I've seen some better days…" Yang muttered as Jaune helped her to her feet. Both blonds then did a quick sweep of the area and counted their lucky stars; the whole street seemed to be deserted, the area they were currently in being more or less the same area where the Holy Knights' base had once resided in.

But with the helicopters quickly approaching still, the sound of megaphone enhanced voices getting louder, it was only a matter of minutes now until this abandoned part of Vale ceased being a ghost town.

The sound of shoes – heels, to be precise – clicking onto the sidewalk immediately made the two blonds stand back to back. That Neo girl, not that they knew her name, had just touched down and was most likely about to make her next move.

Both internally grimaced upon realizing that they most likely wouldn't be able to tell where the next attack would come from until it's too late. It didn't particularly help them that their current opponent was so slight in both stature and build, making her much harder to hit than someone of average height and build.

This was shaping up to be perhaps the most troublesome fight yet.

As for the battles raging on now within Robotics Space, the one between Ryuichi and Indra was quickly shaping up to be the most intense one thus far, if only due to sheer speed.

Despite the battle taking place inside of a caver, its great size and multiple tunnels allowed for a great deal of mobility, an environmental fact that both combatants eagerly took advantage.

Moving with such speed that he was able to run across the ceiling effortlessly, Ryuichi rushed through a looping tunnel before jumping at Indra, delivering a fierce spin kick. However, Indra was able to block and even parry the blow, using Vajra to nearly impale Ryuichi through the shin as the attack was deflected with the hilt of the sai.

Indra made his own move now, jumping at Ryuichi's almost prone form now in midair, both sais aimed directly for Ryuichi's eyes. But the ancient magus simply shifted his center of gravity and reared his head back, causing Indra to go leaping towards the ceiling. Indra in turn simply flipped over and as soon as his feet made contact with the ceiling, he fired off three lightning bolts at Ryuichi who had now landed back on the ground.

Side stepping the first before back flipping to avoid the second one, Ryuichi settled for simply summoning Mjolnir to absorb the third lightning bolt before dismissing his magical weapon.

"Tch!" Indra could only release some of his omnipresent nervousness and tension through sounds like this. He'd known intellectually that his opponent, Thor, had such an option available to him, but to actually witness his magical attack being so utterly ineffective was something else entirely. Looks like if he wanted his magical blows to be even remotely effective against such a foe, he'd have to catch him off guard first.

So rather than lunge at Ryuichi, Indra instead rushed away, disappearing through a pitch black tunnel that Ryuichi couldn't see through.

Ryuichi didn't give chase, not so much as even entertaining such a thought. From the start of this battle, he knew that this environment was meant to favor his opponent. The only reason he'd been able to utilize the tunnels thus far to his own benefit was because he'd memorized the ones Indra had gone through and deducing the exit points after seeing where Indra had entered them.

Alas, it turned out that simply remaining in the open area wasn't a good idea either for no more than seven lightning bolts made simultaneous appearances from different tunnels.

"Rrgh!" Ryuichi hadn't anticipated this. Looks like Indra had found one tunnel that loops around the entire area or at least connected to several other tunnels, it's the only way he could've fired so many magical attacks like this.

Immediately, Ryuichi tried to move, starting by first running away from his current spot and ducking under one lightning bolt that had been shot at a perfect ninety degree angle at him. As he passed under it, Ryuichi could just feel the power radiating from it. While it was all but nothing compared to the amount of mana he'd sensed within Heracles all that time ago, it was still considerable and would've done some damage had it struck. And Indra still had plenty of opportunities for that.

Because of the sheer number of lightning bolts and the various angles they came from, Ryuichi kept on the move, not wishing to risk trying to summon Mjolnir to absorb them. So instead, the ancient magus sped towards the nearest tunnel, one he'd run down before. Due to the tunnel's perfect circular shape, Ryuichi was able to casually run up the walls, onto the ceiling, and then down the other wall onto the ground again, perfectly syncing his timing with the lightning bolts' speed as they followed after him.

Some of the lightning bolts, due to the angles they'd been at, ended up hitting the walls or ceiling as they chased after him and exploded with great force, nearly making the tunnel cave in. Another bolt struck one of the various crystals that could be seen all over this space and to Ryuichi's befuddlement, the crystal remained completely fine.

Befuddlement changed to outright disbelief when a lightning bolt shot out from a completely different crystal that Ryuichi was just about to pass by.

"Mjolnir!" Ryuichi called out, summoning his magical weapon instantly to absorb the attack. He didn't forget about the few remaining bolts either, twisting his body so that two shot past him while absorbing the one from the crystal. The final lightning bolt, however, struck him in his right side, his ribs being broken in the process due to the sheer force of the blow and the odd angle it had struck him at.

Hissing in pain as he was knocked out through the tunnel's exit and back into the main area, he looked to see Indra had returned and was already right up in his face.

With a battle cry, Indra took advantage of Ryuichi's current state to try and ram one of his sais through the right side of Ryuichi's mouth. Unfortunately for him, Ryuichi was still quick enough to turn his head to barely dodge the strike, the sai only grazing his cheek. Then Ryuichi flipped and hit Indra in the very center of his nose with a vicious knee.

"Gah!" Indra was taken aback by the knee strike, he was nearly sent onto his back. But he managed admirably to remain standing…

…Only for Ryuichi to now fully right his position and deliver a powerful palm strike to the throat before going for a joint lock, specifically Indra's right leg. With said maneuver sending both of them to the ground, Ryuichi was about to roll forward, an action that would undoubtedly break Indra's leg right off if it fully went through. Indra, despite the pain, was able to make Ryuichi back off by attempting to fire another lightning bolt at Ryuichi's temple from point blank range.

Jumping back several yards, Ryuichi assumed a combat stance just as Indra forced himself onto his feet. Coughing and hacking from the neck blow, Indra tried not to rub his throat, afraid that if he did so, Ryuichi might try something.

To his misfortune, Ryuichi tried something anyway. Before the seventh seat could fully get back onto his feet, Ryuichi pounced like a lion upon Indra, kicking him hard in the chest. This also had the effect of Ryuichi all but jumping straight up afterwards and kicking off the ceiling to deal Indra another immediate blow, this time landing a powerful elbow right in Indra's mouth just as the young man had staggered back from the initial attack.

The blow very nearly succeeded in caving in the Holy Knight's mouth and would've knocked him onto his back had Indra not managed to turn his near down into a surprisingly graceful backflip. Moving well away from Ryuichi, Indra opted for yet again a less direct approach.

So immediately, he tried to make a break for a tunnel, hoping to loop around quickly and attack him from behind.

He barely got two feet before Ryuichi suddenly appeared between him and the tunnel he'd had in mind, cutting him off so completely thanks to the short distance between them that he was unable to do anything when Ryuichi struck him hard in the solar plexus, which was then followed up by a quick uppercut and roundhouse kick to the side of the head, connecting with a particular spot of the skull that was rather soft in Indra's case.

It was only thanks to a combination of resiliency and sheer resolve that Indra was able to keep from blacking out, though these two traits did absolutely nothing to keep him from crashing into a large crystal, which smashed underneath him from the sheer power and speed behind Ryuichi's blows.

"I'm not letting you out of my sights now," Ryuichi remarked as he took up a Karate stance, inching forward closer to the downed Holy Knight. "I've gotten used to your speed now and as long as I don't let you anywhere near the tunnels, you won't able to rope around behind me anytime soon."

Indra inwardly swore as he felt blood drip down from a wound that had formed from Ryuichi's kick. Said wound healed up quickly enough, but the feel of his own blood running down the side of his face now left him feeling almost painfully aware of his mortality.

If he made another slip up, there was absolutely no telling just what could happen.

So he was going to have to start changing things up yet again.

"Eye of the Storm!" Indra decided it was now time for him to finally utilize his more powerful magical abilities, which Eye of the Storm was.

The response to his words was immediate. A thick fog manifested from nothing and filled the entirety of Robotics Space and therefore spreading throughout all of the tunnels and the main area. So thick was this fog that the only objects visible were the slightly glowing crystals sprouting out from all over the cave and even then, the glow was dim.

Ryuichi took a cautious step forward to where Indra had lied, the hairs on the very back of his neck standing up as a jolt made itself know.

This fog was far from normal, acting more like some kind of tamed lightning cloud rather than an actual fog. That meant only one thing to Ryuichi: an attack could come from anywhere.

But the ancient magus remained calmed and silently summoned his magical weapon, Mjolnir. Whatever Indra had in mind, he highly doubted it would simply involve invoking this ability and then hanging back. It must be a cover up of some kind for something.

He turned out to be right, but even then, he hadn't quite been expecting what had happened.

Manifesting from nowhere, lightning bolts many times the size of the ones from earlier appeared from all around Ryuichi at point blank range, making it impossible for him to use Mjolnir in time to absorb them. Dodging them would be impossible as well.

That is, in his normal state.

Just about as the lightning bolts were about to close the miniscule distance, Ryuichi made his move. "Turbulence!"

A thunderous boom broke out and with such force that some of the lightning bolts were canceled out from this action alone as Ryuichi proceeded to use one of trump cards.

From the spot he'd been standing in, Ryuichi had vanished and now reappeared more than twenty yards away from it, his Turbulence mode now activated. Even within the thick fog, his lightning aura and now blond hair and green eyes remained quite visible to the naked eye.

But Indra, watching this from one of the tunnels he'd silently slipped into, wasn't worried, but rather was relieved.

For Eye of the Storm wasn't necessarily an attack type ability, although with the capability of manifesting lightning from everywhere like an actual lightning storm could certainly fool people into thinking such a thing. No, Eye of the Storm was ultimately an ability that allowed him to travel through a lightning bolt very temporarily to another location. This was how he'd been able to escape from Takehiko, Daisuke, and Katsu back when he'd confronted the former in Atlas so long ago.

But alas, this too wasn't a function that would do him much good within Robotics Space since he could only travel around so much within it. Not to mention now that Thor was in his Turbulence mode, his speed was far too great for him to be matched now. At least beforehand, Indra had been capable of keeping up with him in speed, which is why he had chosen Thor to fight due to their preference for speed and lightning.

But now, in order to counter his foe's Turbulence mode, he too will have to pull out all the stops too.

"Overbooster," Indra whispered, activating the second trump card Vidar had gifted all of the Holy Knights with.

Indra's overbooster was a special one, in that it only truly worked within the confines of his Robotics Space. And it involved the crystals scattered all throughout the space.

Each and every crystal glowed so brightly for one reason: they store and channel lightning. It was why his lightning bolt had been able to be absorbed by one crystal only to be rematerialized by another. But now with his overbooster active, Indra relied instead on the charges stored within all of the crystals.

Immediately, Ryuichi noticed something was wrong as the dim lights emitted from the crystals faded and were immediately drawn to another spot on the end of the cave opposite from him.

And the lightning charges from within those crystals were being drawn directly into Indra.

Ryuichi, seeing this happen, immediately reacted, sensing danger. At a speed that was almost nine times the speed of light, he traveled through the very air at Indra, right fist cocked back and ready to strike.

But – against logic itself – Ryuichi had been too slow.

The lightning charges were taken in by Indra and in a flash of light, the young man seemed to change. His entire body began to crackle with white lightning, his shaggy hair turning up a bit, becoming spiky. His eyes, which had been closed, now opened up to reveal irises and pupils so pale that it could almost be mistaken from the long since disappeared Byakugan of the Hyuga clan.

Then that was when the seventh seat moved.

Ryuichi went from being little more than four feet away from Indra to being knocked back across the cave until he smashed into the cave wall, cratering it.

But he hardly felt the pain even as he slumped ungracefully to the ground. For all he could focus on now was Indra, who stood only a yard away from him.

Indra had his own Turbulence mode too.

Meanwhile, within the confines of Kalma's Robotics Space, Hanako and Yuko were both on edge. And more than a little disgruntled.

Yuko's simple clothes, consisting of jeans and a long sleeved white blouse, were dirtied and slightly torn to reveal healing cuts.

Hanako, due to being Naruto's magical weapon, had become much stronger over the centuries, her master's all but limitless mana reserves having empowered her through their connection to a point where she was currently unhurt, but still sported some slight clothing damage as well.

Their foe was certainly a fast one, agile and smart. And definitely not human.

"See anything?" Yuko asked, the red eyed magus cautiously eyeing the trees in case their opponent decided to leap from one. In spite of its size, it certainly was light enough on its feet to pull off such a feat.

"Nothing yet," Hanako responded, hands drawn out and ready to fire a magical blast at the drop of a pin. "But my Mimisbrunner was able to record this thing a bit."

"Such as?" Yuko flinched a bit upon hearing some of this place's wildlife roar a bit, in fear. While said wildlife had yet to attack them, that hadn't meant they hadn't tried to stampede over the two women when the beast – Surma – had startled them enough into doing so earlier. Thankfully, it sounds as if the wildlife had moved far enough away to not be much of a risk anymore.

"This beast has no real abilities save for its strength, speed, and thick hide," Hanako began, her Mimisbrunner having evolved slightly over the centuries to be able to get such a read on opponents with even one glance… which is all she really got of the beast before it vanished into the forest again earlier. "It does have something held back, though I can't identify what it is."

"What's its top speed?" Yuko asked, keeping her back to Hanako as they both cautiously paced through the forest.

"Easily in the four digits Mach speed," Hanako replied, grimacing as she did so. "Above our speed, but is still slower than Ryuichi."

Now Yuko grimaced. "That doesn't make me feel much better…" she muttered. She currently held two of her Overload blades while having the other two slowly fanning out through the forest, staying close to the ground to avoid being detected. She mentally set them so that they'll attack anything that gets within a certain distance of the two women, but so far they've yet to do anything.

Which meant their foe was still keeping its distance now. That was somewhat worrying.

What was more worrying though was the fact that her Overload had been a little on the useless side against the beast earlier during its initial appearance. Thanks to quick reflexes on her part, she'd managed to attack it twice with the blade in her right hand before it ran off and she had originally thought it'd been their win; she'd struck it with the blade that'll cause increasing pain, after all.

But to her surprise, the beast had made a second appearance not long afterwards, completely fine. And now the reason why became obvious thanks to what Hanako just said.

While her blades' abilities could certainly make her a troublesome foe for anyone, it only worked when it actually cut her opponent. But since this thing's hide was so thick, it'd been unwounded from the two attacks and as a result had remained unaffected by Overload's ability.

How very irksome.

And as if to rub this in her face, Surma chose that exact instant to strike.

"Incoming!" Yuko exclaimed, her two blades within the forest suddenly shooting several magical blasts each upon detecting hostile motion.

But Surma was unaffected by the blasts and soldiered on, dancing in between the trees as it quickly approached Hanako and Yuko.

But the latter's warning had prepped Hanako and now the humanoid magical weapon immediately turned in time to see Surma leap out from between two thin trees. While she may not be the fastest person around, her reflexes were still more than enough to fire off a powerful magical blast that proved far more effective than the ones Overload had peppered the sentient Relic with.

Surma howled in surprise as Hanako's attack blew it back through a mile's worth of land, smashing through trees and curved parts of the ground as if they weren't there.

The beast could only growl afterwards from pain, the blast having singed its chest a bit. But the growling came to an abrupt halt as Yuko threw the two blades in her hands at it. The blades whirled through the air and moved erratically so that Surma couldn't possibly predict their exact paths. Nonetheless, Surma was able to surprisingly pull off a back flip that put some distance between it and the blades before jumping away, kicking away one blade in the process as it suddenly gained in speed.

The other blade, however, hanged back and fired a small but concentrated blast of mana at the back of Surma's right shin. Now that did some damage, Surma's snout twitching as a sign of the pain. Its shins were some of the weaker spots of its body.

But Surma kept on the move and disappeared over a large hill, faint rustling heard as it ran amongst the trees on the other side of it and in doing so succeeded in escaping Hanako and Yuko for now.

"…That did some damage there," Yuko remarked, referring to Hanako's attack and her own.

"Yeah," Hanako agreed, a small smile on her face. Her attack power had increased immensely thanks to her master's essential ascension to the status of the ultimate magus. Evidently, her power was great enough to do some to this beast, though she suspected it'd take Laevateinn to truly put the thing down for good in just one shot.

Yuko was thinking along similar lines as well. It may have cost her a fair bit of mana to actually damage the Relic, but she'd been able to at least cause it some level of pain there. Granted, she'd gone for what had to be one of its most vulnerable spots and even then the attack hadn't actually scratched its hide, but still it'd been something. That meant she could still be more than capable of hurting the beast, this being a thought that alleviated her irked attitude a bit.

"Let's go after it, Hanako. I'm getting tired of just waiting for this thing to initiate the attack," Yuko said, walking off in the direction Surma had gone off in, calling back her blades to her side as she did so.

Hanako nodded. "Right."

From afar, Kalma watched in uncomfortable silence as the two women began their trek after Surma. Clutching the front of her white dress tightly, Kalma knew what she had to do now.

Up until now, Surma had only been observing them from afar, having only bothered to attack them a handful of times thus far. This was because it could sense the power that both Hanako and Yuko possessed and deemed them to be enemies to be more cautious around. So to this end, it'd opted to err on the side of caution by sticking to the shadows and utilizing only hit-and-run tactics for the time being unless forced to act otherwise.

But now Kalma could look at the situation playing out and knew that it was time for that to change.

Surma had only been acting so cautious just so that it could get a better feel of Hanako and Yuko; through its few outright attacks so far, it'd learned of their reaction time, the power behind their attacks, and how they generally fight individually and in unison. This information was now going to be put to good use in the form of a more aggressive and direct offensive.

And that was where Robotics Space would truly come into play. For while the fantasy-esque forest made it very easy for Surma to perform such easy hit-and-run maneuvers, the wild life that filled this place were now about to perform their one and only 'true' role: feeding the beast.

"Surma… activate All Dead," Kalma whispered, knowing that her sentient Relic would hear the command. At the very same time, she'd be activating her overbooster as well. Doing so would temporarily boost her resiliency greatly, which should hopefully help her out a lot should either Hanako or Yuko even realize she was here and go after her.

But really, in activating her overbooster, most of the power it would grant her would be transferred instead to Surma.

Which is exactly what happened as Surma obliged Kalma.

So with a mighty howl that exuded both power and sheer confidence, Surma activated its All Dead ability just as Kalma activated her overbooster.

Many meters away from the beast, Hanako and Yuko could only come to a halt as Surma's howl echoed all throughout Robotics Space and the many specially created animals around it began to shriek and die as their life force was taken in by Surma, empowering it greatly thanks to the sheer number of creatures there were.

Its eyes glowing ominously, like two blood moons in a pitch black sky, Surma sported a terrifying grin as it began to circle around and head back for its two foes.

It was now time for it to really cut loose.

And so the battles now truly begin! As said before, I will be trying to focus on roughly 2 to 3 battles per chapter in order to keep things from getting too cluttered and to allow me to spend ample time on each battle. And as you can already see, things are already seriously heating up as the Holy Knights begin to ramp up the stakes. You can expect the ancient magi plus teams RWBY and JNPR to return the favor in equal measure as well.

Until next time, everyone. Take care!